Most undergraduates leave Irish universities short-changed, never having been exposed to the research process or the riches of the research endeavour. It is a tragedy that lessons and insights derived from research-based inquiry conducted by faculty and postgraduate researchers are often not shared with them. Universities are correct when they say research is the cornerstone of competitiveness in the knowledge society. Yet, the academic enterprise fails to imbue a passion, or indeed even an appetite, for exploration in most young people during these formative years. Students must wait until they conduct postgraduate research to enter the exciting world of discovery. This is too long a time to wait.